Tag Archives: Booklist

Booklist is sponsoring a webinar next Tuesday, June 1st, Power to the User: Interactive Online Reference. Librarians and vendors will discuss the interactive features available today, and in the future, for online reference products. For more information and to register, visit the Booklist webinar page. Participants will be invited to take a survey on interactive reference features, voting for their own favorites.

Gale announced today the availability of the AccessMyLibrary (AML) School Edition app for the iPhone. The new K-12 version allows students to find their local school library – (grade schools, middle schools and high schools) and access the vast array of Gale resources the school library has purchased on their behalf. Students can use the application to locate their school and then will be required to authenticate for the school year, using a password provided by the school.Continue reading Gale’s AccessMyLibrary School Edition iPhone app→

A new Off The Shelf Column in Reference Books Bulletin (Booklist) explores open access e-textbooks. The CK12 Foundation, Connexions, Flatworld Knowledge, and Merlot are discussed. Other Off The Shelf pieces are on the articles page.

I’ve had several posts in the last 3 months about interactive online reference – a survey, link to a Charleston Presentation, and now a link to the “Off The Shelf” column in Booklist which highlights interactive online reference (and summarizes the survey and the presentation from Charleston). The article is available at Booklist Online and is also linked from the NSR articles page, along with the other Off The Shelf columns. Happy reading.

Reference Books Bulletin (Booklist) will host a webinar on the 21st century reference collection on January 12th. Register online for this free event.

Here is the description of the event:

Reference collections are changing, driven by technology and new patterns of use. Join Booklist’s Mary Ellen Quinn, Editor of Reference Books Bulletin, and a group of library and publishing experts as they talk about how the traditional reference collection is being transformed. Panelists include David A. Tyckoson, Associate Dean, California State University Henry Madden Library; and representatives from Encyclopaedia Britannica, M. E. Sharpe, World Book, and ABC-CLIO.

Last month I posted a link to a survey about interactive online reference features. The survey was used to gauge the interest in 30 different interface features, ranging from video and sound to course packs, Web 2.0 features, and sharing materials. The results of the survey were used during a presentation at the Charleston Conference on November 6, 2009. The presentation was titled “Interactive Online Reference” and was presented by Tom Beyer from iFactory and myself. The slides from our presentation are available here, and do include the results of the survey. Overall, the respondents favored all 30 features, as everything received greater than 50% approval. But, there were definite favorites, which are listed. During our presentation, we used audience response systems to tally the interest of the attendees. The results of those impromptu surveys are also included in the slides.

The January 2010 Booklist will include a summary of the presentation and survey in my Off The Shelf column (which I will post of course), and the full paper will be available in the 29th Annual Charleston Conference Proceedings sometime in 2010. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

The April 1, 2009 “Off The Shelf” column features an article on E-book usage data. The article surveyed 10 e-book vendors and aggregators for information on their usage data. A comparative chart accompanies the article, which is only available online, on the NSR articles page.

7 vendors replied to the survey, 1 couldn’t participate due to usage data restructuring, and 2 did not reply. The 2 no replies serve primarily the public and school library markets, so this usage chart is heavy on academic providers.